Which is exactly how it'll work if you listened to the live stream. Your data is shared -after- you hand it in, not before. It also won't be visible on the galaxy map, it'll only be visible to other Commanders when they go to those systems.
News Content Recap: Beyond - Chapter Four Livestream - Exploration and the Codex
Which is exactly how it'll work if you listened to the live stream. Your data is shared -after- you hand it in, not before. It also won't be visible on the galaxy map, it'll only be visible to other Commanders when they go to those systems.
Pretty good. And this is just one part of what is coming. I think it at least explains why the rest of the year was so light on new stuff.
you pretty wrote out much my own thoughts, good job!
some minor deviations/highlights:
- the scanning ui is not convincing at all. 'full screen' interface is indeed annoying. it would be perfect for multicrew where you have a crewmember dedicated to scanning, but it is isolating. i would prefer a mode like the srv scanner where you can work out scanning from the cockpit while still being aware of your surroundings.
it is also a bit cumbersome to have to 1. go into analytics mode, 2. then honk, 3. then pan around etc. i get the new mode will be shared by other activities (mining) but still, it's not optimal. that's just another button binding for nothing but devs convenience.
otoh if they had to go fullscreen then the spectral band, which is the most relevant element of the whole thing, could have gotten a lot more protagonism and be a lot nicer/bigger/clearer. it looks really flimsy in a lot of wasted ui estate.
still i would much prefer adopting the srv scanning interface style, having the spectral bar on the radar or some overlay, and maybe with some extra 'outside' overlays (similar to q4 asteroid sweepscan or nightvision) for gravity signals etc, and panning could be done with ship orientation if need be.
i noticed the distance slider got silently ditched (?).
i also hope the new orrery (which is awesome!) gets its own configurable bindings section, which the system map currently lacks (and has really bad settings for vr). 'logarithmic scale' suggestion is brilliant!
- about scanning (more like 'identifying') time, well that's 20min for 120 bodies! but yes, that's the big game changer. bult talking about extremely crowded systems it still remains to be seen how interpretable the spectral bar will be in them. plus the extremes, systems with lots of bodies of the same type, or different types closely together, etc ... and i'm not seeing that as a bad thing at all, it could be a challenging and rewarding 'skill' mechanic but it definitely changes the way systems are discovered. we just need to see how this works out in practice. which brings us to ...
- travellers, that horse unfortunatley was already. what there was before was really crude placeholder mechanic and gameplay based on such has just become obsolete. changes mean decisions, decisions inevitably cut some freedom away. they'll just have to suck it up and adapt, we've all been there several times in 4 years in one form or another. better focus on what the new system can offer, it is indeed far richer.
other than that, yes, overall quite good with much the same reservations.
for extra fun (or food for thought?), some selected adam woods quotes i picked up:
"since you are still playing this years after release ..."
"exploring uss"
"it's a funny feeling when you talk about feeling the lighting"
</insert>
Honestly the fact they point out it's unlimited is far more annoying than it actually BEING unlimited. If it's going to be like that, just make it a non-issue, don't rub our face in a sideways eight.
I too would prefer a high ammo count (or heck, make it so it uses Plasma Slug technology like the rail gun modification, so that it ends up using a bit of fuel each time. Gets rid of synthesis issues, but makes us be careful about using it in a system without a scoopable star
). But if infinite is the way to go, just remove the ammo listing altogether. It's not helping anyone.My own "I wish they had added this" moment was that if they're recording the various places you've been in a session, they should set up a kind of "captains log" tab where you can take any of those events in recent history and elaborate on it via keyboard, which will automatically save the whole thing in a library for review. That way recent history is always recorded (and eventually forgotten if not needed) while you can keep a record of important stuff for easy access. Right now the only stuff that's being kept (it seems) is the in-game important stuff (recorded logs and special locations).
It's a game first and foremost. There's nothing wrong with realism taking a backseat to fun every now and again.
Will the USS’s respawn if you come back into a system or, once they’ve timed out, they’re gone for good?
you pretty wrote out much my own thoughts, good job!
High praise! Thank you, sir.Heh, I already (briefly) mentioned this in other threads (Yes, I multi-posted; shoot me
) where I tweaked this post but thanks for highlighting it here. Especially for VR there's a lot of small detail in this screen which should really be scaled up. Will have to try it in the beta I guess, but this is another concern I had from the initial reveal; was hoping it had been addressed since then.For sure; having it all much more integrated with the Ship HUD similar to the very excellent wave-scanner in the SRV would have been very nice indeed.
Only minor disagreement here is using the ship orientation - firstly it wouldn't be multi-crew friendly (although I personally don't care about that) and secondly it'd be tied to ship specs which would make it a lot slower overall.
Eh, I'm not too fussed about this personally, I'm just amused/disappointed that FDev have gotten the feedback/concerns so totally wrong on this one. It was never about the money! Ditto about the fact it'll be much quicker to identify and scan ELW's etc - that's NOT THE POINT.
But anyway..
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Bring on the beta!
Will consoles have the same visual improvements as PC or will they be limited?
The impression from the livestream was that they're "persistent" (so yes, they'll respawn if you return to a system), until they time out, at which point they'll be gone for good.
I'm hoping they've thought about treating mission-specific USSs differently so that they either time-out when the mission itself times out, or they'll respawn.
Very cool!
When you follow a rumour, and it becomes reported, does the codex update straight away? or do you need to land at a starport before everyone else is aware of it?
I don't know if it's been addressed at all (I may have missed this part in the livestream), but does this new scanning system mean that you now get the discovered by tag when identifying the solar body or do you still need to go up and DSS? (regardless of whether you hurl probes at it)
I'm excited to see the changes for Exploration, they look like an improvement. One thing wasn't clear to me and this finding mission targets. Will I have to scan each body in a new system until I've found the one that holds my mission target? Or will there be a more immediate way of telling where I need to go?
yes, agreed, but then it would have to be either panning through headlook (doesn't sound like a bad idea to me at a first glance, although we now how easily that can be hacked!!!
) or, indeed a separate ui component like shown (although there would be other options besides fullscreen). anyhow it's probably way too late for such a change.me neither. i'm not sure they got it totally wrong, it's just possibly the best compromise they could come up with (in this short timeframe), and the changes and explanation are more of a 'political' nature to show they are sensible than a genuine attempt to address the issue, which is actually very complex because imo the new concept is inherently incompatible with the old ways. preserving that 100% would probably have meant scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch. which is obviously not realistic, that's why players need to 'suck it up'. ideally this should have gone through the 'focused feedback' process and then some solution would have been easier. but well, the bottom line here for me is that these changes have been a bit rushed and those 100+ devs weren't simply available at the time it would have mattered. there was no option to really change course, now. the new scanning screenshot is ... what ... a year old? this has been in a drawer for very long time and only recenty pulled out imo. too late now. all in all i see the change as positive.
Excellent stream and a whole lot to take in, some really good stuff to take in too.
My (constructive) crtiticisms were a few little aesthetic things really. The text for the number of bodies in system found/to be discovered is in huge lettering while everything else is really tiny (would prefer typefaces like that be more consistent?) and the isometric picture of the ship in the right panel, for me a front view would be more 'technical'. Isometiric is quite decorative looking, orthographic projection is less pretty but it's a ship systems thing. (There was a huge elite symbol somewhere that gave me a similar feeling)
I agree other people suggesting the infinite probes decision is understandable but would personally prefer a refill too, in fact I've been wishing lately I could just dump iron (as well as fuel)
If probes used fuel, could that kill two birds with one stone?
The orrery view is a great surprise. So if you'd like to add a timestamp, forward / rewind time button, so I can watch the planets orbit, to work out where they'll be in the year 5 billion, you can have all my babies!
Lastly the discovery system looks really cool though if it were at all possible I would prefer that to be a cockpit overlay rather than a whole new screen view, to keep situation awareness, one eye on the scanner and avoid crashing into stars and such. The starport services screen works really well imo but if it seems tricky, sliders on opacity might give (even) more in ship choices?
Overall though, big huge steps in good directions for me. Nice one. [up]
My (constructive) crtiticisms were a few little aesthetic things really. The text for the number of bodies in system found/to be discovered is in huge lettering while everything else is really tiny (would prefer typefaces like that be more consistent?) and the isometric picture of the ship in the right panel, for me a front view would be more 'technical'. Isometiric is quite decorative looking, orthographic projection is less pretty but it's a ship systems thing. (There was a huge elite symbol somewhere that gave me a similar feeling)
I agree other people suggesting the infinite probes decision is understandable but would personally prefer a refill too, in fact I've been wishing lately I could just dump iron (as well as fuel
)If probes used fuel, could that kill two birds with one stone?
The orrery view is a great surprise. So if you'd like to add a timestamp, forward / rewind time button, so I can watch the planets orbit, to work out where they'll be in the year 5 billion, you can have all my babies!
Lastly the discovery system looks really cool though if it were at all possible I would prefer that to be a cockpit overlay rather than a whole new screen view, to keep situation awareness, one eye on the scanner and avoid crashing into stars and such. The starport services screen works really well imo but if it seems tricky, sliders on opacity might give (even) more in ship choices?
Overall though, big huge steps in good directions for me. Nice one. [up]
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So I just watched it after waking up this morning, have come to work, and haven't had time to go through all the threads yet or review the write-ups or community reactions.
I do expect to find quite a few mountains of salt in the threads though just based on the discussion threads over the last few weeks and what was shown; we'll see...
TL;DR: Overall pretty good, but I have some reservations.
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First impressions:
"Visuals"
* Will have to wait and see what it looks like in-game, but from the screen-shots, a lot of it looked like gamma increases (ie, it didn't just make the planets "pop", but also the skybox; the latter should not "pop" even more close to a star.)
* Night-vision; wow, overall looks great! Could have been done differently (eg, leverage the "landing radar" display and instead of night vision make it a computer-generated terrain map, so looking more abstract) but no real quibbles. Not sure why people are concerned about the SRV here; why wouldn't the SRV have it too? It wasn't mentioned either way...
"Honk"
* Wish we could "Honk" in the ship interface after changing modes but before bringing up the interface. Dislike the fact you always have to bring up a full-screen overlay (very jarring and especially bad for VR).
- this still leaves the old questions about what happens in populated systems unanswered. You're completely vulnerable to interdiction and completely lose environmental awareness.
* Love the fact pre-discovered systems populate the Nav Panel and System Map; at least as far as has been discovered already. Love the fact discoveries are shared when they are handed in now. Purely from an immersion perspective I'd still very much like a mini-NavBeacon to be deployed in these systems which _should_ have almost zero impact on performance. It'd also be nice if there was a galaxy filter for "discovered systems" but that likely -would- have a major performance impact so unlikely.
* FDev -really- missed the point of "Travellers". Travellers do NOT honk for credits (mostly), they honk to get a quick overview of the system to see whether or not it'll be interesting enough to spend more time in. But we knew this and we knew that FDev had completely missed the point here. It was more just stray hope that they had addressed this. Giving "honkers" more credits is almost completely pointless.
"Discovery Scanner"
* Overall really love what they presented, except that it's a full-screen interface. Really dislike these full-screen interfaces.
* FDev, again, totally missed the point of what people consider "interesting". Finding -specific- types of planets is only one type of interesting (and often just coupled to making money quickly), and this is the only use-case which has gotten a speed buff. Yes, we'll be able to quickly scan systems for ELW's etc, but we will NOT be able to quickly scan a system for interesting alignments or orbits or <insert interesting="" thing="" of="" your="" choice="" here="">.
* Very concerned about how it'll handle in VR. All that panning and zooming. The System Map and Galaxy Map are already quite nausea-inducing in VR. Will have to try it.
* 100-body system takes 20-ish minutes to scan at full speed. Hmm. So before I can see whether or not there's anything interesting in the system (other than specific types of bodies), I have to spend 20 minutes now. Bummer
"Probing"
* Overall mechanics looked great
* Disappointed about "unlimited" ammo; large ammo for sure (10's of thousands perhaps?), but would be nice to have to stop and restock occasionally (say every hundred systems?).
* Disappointed about "precise locations" - PLEASE consider limited search areas instead...
"System Map"
* Didn't see anything new except the Orrery?
* The Orrery is great! Thanks so much for adding it, completely unexpected addition!!
- Suggestion: Add a "Toggle logarithmic scale" button.
"Ship UI Changes"
* Overall looked pretty good.
* Will have to see how nicely it all plays with Voice Attack; tiny bit concerned about "context sensitive" menu items. Hope some of the new features will get dedicated hot-keys.
"Codex"
* From what we were shown: Great Stuff
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So my take-away is that overall it's looking pretty good; yes, there are concerns, but we'll see how it all shakes out in the beta.
But I did get the strong impression that the lead guys don't really play the game, or at least, these aspects of it, in any great deal of depth. Andy saying "he'll relax on the couch and try exploring" is a case in point.
As always, it's fantastic to see that I am almost 100% on the same page with both you & Mengy
. You've said exactly what I have said.....only much, much better .</insert>Haven't watched the whole stream yet but some quick thoughts :
Firstly, it looks great on the whole, really good. If I don't mention it below it's because I'm liking what I see. Nice one FD
Travellers : it's not about the credits for many, it's about systems with interesting orbits and configurations.
Discovery UI: we need situational awareness while scanning
Probes: unlimited ammo is a good thing, If you decide to add a resource cost after feedback make it fuel for energy to create them, that way any current explorer will be fine.
Orrery: Yes and night vision, that's great.
Looking forward to the rest of the streams o7
Firstly, it looks great on the whole, really good. If I don't mention it below it's because I'm liking what I see. Nice one FD
Travellers : it's not about the credits for many, it's about systems with interesting orbits and configurations.
Discovery UI: we need situational awareness while scanning
Probes: unlimited ammo is a good thing, If you decide to add a resource cost after feedback make it fuel for energy to create them, that way any current explorer will be fine.
Orrery: Yes
and night vision, that's great. Looking forward to the rest of the streams o7
Nvidia isn't saying what you think they are saying.
It "just works" in the sense that if you already have a DX12 engine using Nvidia middleware you can start dropping in RTX effects without having to handcraft everything, but this doesn't even remotely begin to imply that any given title will ever have any RTX effects just because you have an RTX capable part.
RTX cards have RTX drivers now, but there are still no RTX or DLSS games in the wild because these features have to be patched in to the titles in question and there are all sorts of pre-requisites. RTX is NVIDIA's flavor of DXR (part of DX12) or Vulkan's raytracing extensions. Elite: Dangerous is a DX11 game and it's not possible to implement RTX on DX11. Even if they did port the game to DX12, they'd still have to specifically integrate RTX features into the game, it wouldn't be automatic. DLSS has no such API dependency, but it needs to have a pre-compiled profile, provided by NVIDIA, for it to function.
Elite: Dangerous isn't going to see any RTX features at least until they make a DX12 or Vulkan version of the Cobra engine, which may not happen in ED's lifetime and even if it did, RTX support would not be guaranteed.